Has Robert Downey Jr named his baby daughter after the Alberta Veterinary Research Institute?

With the institute’s tireless work on the intersection of animal, public and environmental health, it's not hard to see why the actor might have chosen it

Robert Downey Jr and his wife, film producer Susan Downey, have, like many couples who are married in the world, successfully reproduced.

So far, so like human beings.

In fact, it’s even normal for Robert Downey JR, who, despite apparently being made entirely of iron, has already managed to produce offspring – Exton, 2, with Downey, and Indio, 21, from his previous marriage to Deborah Falconer.

What isn’t so run-of-the-mill is the name they’ve chosen for her, which, if the free dictionary serves correctly, appears to be an abbreviation of the Alberta Veterinary Research Institute.

“Yep... Avri Roel Downey joined the party @ 3:22 a.m. on November 4th,” he wrote on his official Facebook page.

“She's 7 lbs even, spans 20 inches, and is accompanied by a variety of Susan's traits that have seemingly overwritten my ‘junk DNA’.”

What with the institute’s tireless work on the intersection of animal, public and environmental health, including research into infectious diseases, ecotoxicology, Spatio-temporal modelling and advanced diagnostic techniques, we’d say it was pretty worthy of an honorary moniker, too.

The abbreviation could also, however, be after the slightly less respected in the science world American Vintage Reissue, or more random still, the Australian Vital Records Index.

Or they could just have, you know, really liked the name.

“The second pregnancy has been extraordinarily tough for me,” Downey said during his BAFTA acceptance speech in Los Angeles recently. He picked up the Stanley Kubrick Britannia Award for Excellence In Film.

“Prescribed mandatory bed rest was of some benefit. At least my milk is finally coming in.”

Expect uncensored male breast feeding shots on a Facebook page near you in the not so distant future.